July 1 - 14 issue

His mission makes every day of his life World Environment Day!

Sometimes, the most amazing things happen. I was at a friend’s place gorging myself on chaat , when I encountered this 10-year-old. At first, there was little we said to each other beyond the perfunctory greetings.

Then, he broke into our conversation and said something that made me sit up and take notice. We had been talking of airline fares and services, and I was saying that as far as I could, I avoided travelling by Sahara Airlines, despite their quality services, on a matter of principle.

My host demurred, saying that their services were good, so what was my objection? It was at this point that the young man piped up, saying that he agreed with me. Sahara, he said, loud and clear, claiming the attention of everyone in the room, is trying to build a five-star hotel in the Sunderbans, and they will destroy valuable ecology in the process.

He told us that the group had managed to get some okays to go ahead, despite the environment ministry being against it. Encouraged by my attention, he went on to list the facts. I was both impressed and humbled by the breadth and depth of his knowledge and his involvement with saving Nature.

When I told him that I shared his distress over how Mumbai was turning into a plastic waste city, he looked at me with new eyes, as if he had found a soul mate. And he nodded sagaciously when I told him that they were lining the Eastern Express Highway with new trees.

He was one of those who would stop at nothing to save his planet. He had written to the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister suggesting ways he could help improve the lot of tigers in the tiger reserves in the country. And he was rightly upset that they had not bothered to write back to him.

The evening revolved around our conver-sation; he sharing his knowledge, I listening, and the other elders present beaming with quiet pride. Verily, I told myself, here is a young man, who could be the future minister for environment, or even at present, an adviser to the ministry. He had a vested interest, that of keeping the ecology safe for himself and his children.

In him and others like him who have been motivated by Kids For Tigers, or other environment programmes involving children, our country’s safety lies.

I called my little environmentalist up on World Environment Day to tell him that Sahara was planning an event to celebrate World Environment Day. He exclaimed that no one in his or her right mind would want to go to such a function. Indeed, it is sad that a company with such money power and reach should have such a poor image in the eyes of an environmentalist, however young.

Perhaps it can do something to correct its image. Instead of threatening the fragile Sunderbans with the weapons of modernisation, and planning to build a floating hotel in what is one of the few heritage ecological sites left in the world, it could try to use its considerable money might to redevelop once rich land that has been laid to waste.

Fill the now barren mountains of the Western Ghats and the Lower Himalayas with trees; or at least clean up the Gomti that flows like a nala through its own city, Lucknow. And going one step further, perhaps institute an award to help real environmentalists use the money to turn their missions into reality.

Maybe if it did all that, and stopped thinking of ways to make more money at the cost of the environment, it can find acceptance in the eyes of my little environmentalist. Therein lies the challenge.

- The Editor